In general, there are two variants of wireless local area networks (WLAN): infrastructure-based and ad hoc-type. In the former network, communication typically takes place only between the wireless nodes, called stations (STAi), and the access point (AP), whereas communication takes place between the wireless nodes in the latter network. The stations and the AP, which are within the same radio coverage, are known as a basic service set (BSS).
The IEEE 802.11 standard specifies the medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) characteristics for a wireless local area network (WLAN). The IEEE 802.11 standard is defined in International Standard ISO/IEC 8802-11, “Information Technology—Telecommunications and information exchange area networks”, 1999 Edition, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Currently, the IEEE 802.11 does not provide a mechanism to enable dynamic transmit power control between wireless stations within a BSS. Typically, each 802.11 STA uses a fixed transmission power level for all the frame transmissions throughout its lifetime. Accordingly, there is a need for a transmit power level and transmission rate adjustment mechanism that can be implemented within the proposed 802.11a PHY/802.11h MAC implementation without much complexity.